


It Takes a Village

by bookwyrmling



Series: OMGCP Rare Pair Bingo [1]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Aromantic Asexual Holster, Aromantic Character, Asexual Character, Communal parenting, Kid Fic, Multi, Polyamory, Queerplatonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-24 23:48:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13822014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookwyrmling/pseuds/bookwyrmling
Summary: “You know, my family swore it’d be those two getting married one day when they were in college,” Dami said softly and March turned away from watching Ransom and Holster carry a sleeping Libby to bed. “Mom even cried when Ransom told us about you because she thought it meant he and Holster had broken up.”“Yeah, so I’ve heard.” March nodded and laughed. “To be honest,” she admitted, “I was worried I’d lose Ransom to Holster for a bit. I barely saw him when I was getting my teaching certificate and they worked and lived together and I knew how close they were.”“But it worked out,” Dami pointed out and March nodded.





	It Takes a Village

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written for the OMGCP Rare Pair Bingo to fulfill the square for Aroace Characters. I have always been and will always be in love with the idea of aroace Holster, so jumped at the chance to write for it.
> 
> All credit for these characters and their world goes to Ngozi, writer of Check Please!

Holster dropped his backpack onto the couch with a groan the moment the door shut behind him. He wanted his shoes off, but he’d worn his patent leather pair today, which meant he had to actually untie and remove them properly, or he’d hear it from Ransom and March both for scuffing the backs.

“You boys home?” March called out and Holster followed her voice into the kitchen where she was working on dinner prep.

“I am,” he finally replied when she turned to look his way, “Rans’s clients are being their extra special selves, so he’ll be stuck at work until he can pull their heads from out of their a—”

“Daddy!”

Holster slammed his mouth shut and span around, smile on his face as he caught the sprinting girl and swung her up into his arms. “Libby!” he greeted, pulling her into a tight hug and burying his face in the half of her curls that were not pulled into twists.

She laughed and pushed at his shoulder and squealed that he was holding her, “Too tight!”

“Too tight?” Holster asked, pulling his face just far enough away to send an overdramatic face of disbelief at her, “Too tight? I’ll show you too tight!”

“Not in the kitchen, you won’t!” March reminded them, “And Libby, I know your Anti Dami wanted to finish your hair by dinner.”

“But it takes forever,” Libby whined and locked her arms around Holster’s neck.

Holster grinned and offered, “It’ll go faster if I help—”

“Oh no you don’t, Adam Birkholtz. I was there when you tried that vacuum ponytail trick. You do not touch Libby’s hair.”

“How was I supposed to know about shrinkage?” Holster asked, turning around to face Ransom’s younger sister who had moved in to save on cost of living while getting her masters at MIT.

“Clearly, you didn’t,” Dami argued back, pushing her glasses back up her nose.

“Well now I do, and you can teach me!”

“Nuh-uh!” March cut in, waving a kitchen knife between Holster and Dami before their banter could truly take off, causing them both to jump back. “There is not enough room in this kitchen for this many people.” Setting the knife back on the counter, March held her arms out for Libby before handing her back to Dami.

“Betrayal,” Holster hissed at March as Dami laughed and stuck her tongue out at him before flouncing off.

March placed her hand firmly on Holster’s chest and stared him into submission when he attempted to follow. “Since Ransom’s late tonight, you get to take over dinner duty for him,” she explained while nudging him to the chopped vegetables on the counter, “I have lesson plans to finalize.”

“Wait, but—!” Holster began but March was already out of the kitchen. He ran to the doorway and called out, “What were you even making!”

“Your problem now!” March hollered back.

“I’m ordering pizza!” Holster shouted in reply.

“You definitely are not!” coming from two separate voices almost drowned out Libby’s childish shout of glee. Holster sighed as he stared down at the bell peppers and broccoli before pulling out chicken and rice for stir fry.

* * *

 

Ransom dropped his leather briefcase onto the couch next to Holster’s backpack and groaned the moment the door closed behind him.

“It smells amazing in here!” he called out, too tired to do anything but toe off his shoes as the pitter patter of small feet turned the corner.

“Papa! We’re eating dinner!” Libby shouted and jumped into his arms. When he pulled her up, she placed a sticky kiss on his cheek and pointed to the dining room.

“Well that’s a relief, because I’m starving and I’d hate to eat you up as a snack on the way,” Ransom said as he grabbed her fingers pointing the way and stuck them in his mouth. “Mmm, teriyaki Libby!”

“Noooo!” Libby shrieked with laughter and pulled her hand back and wiped it on her father’s blazer.

“Libby Oluransi, how much extra laundry work do you want to make for your mommy?” March scolded with a roll of her eyes and a smile. Ransom set Libby down and gave her a pat as March stood and greeted him with a kiss. “Glad you made it. I’ll get you a plate,” she said as she tried to wipe off the sticky kiss on his cheek, “Libby, sit down and finish your dinner. That means the peppers, too.”

“I hate peppers!” Libby argued, pulling a slice of yellow pepper out of her bowl and setting it onto her napkin with a few other red pieces.

“You eat half and I’ll eat half, but you can’t tell your mom, okay?” Ransom whispered as he gave her a kiss on her head and tossed a few pieces in his mouth. “Did Anti Dami put the twists in your hair?”

“Yes,” Holster answered the same time as Libby, both pouting.

“It took forever,” Libby explained.

“I wasn’t allowed to help,” Holster added.

“Give it time, bro; Dami will forget about it once her thesis kicks in full-force,” Ransom teased as he patted Holster on the shoulder, continuing his way around the table to the empty seat next to his sister.

“I will never forget,” Dami swore. Holster began to crumple and she smiled, her eyes crinkling indulgently, “But I may be busy enough to forgive and be willing to teach some easy styles.”

March came back in with a plate of rice and stir fry for Ransom. She eyed the pile of peppers on Libby’s napkin and smiled when she saw it had shrunk a bit.

“Ready for classes to start up?” Ransom asked his sister.

“You’re gonna miss me when I’m buried in schoolwork,” Dami replied with a grin.

“It’ll be just like always,” Ransom disagreed, “Bookworm Dami.”

Dami elbowed him in the side and they both laughed.

* * *

 

“You know, my family swore it’d be those two getting married one day when they were in college,” Dami said softly and March turned away from watching Ransom and Holster carry a sleeping Libby to bed. “Mom even cried when Ransom told us about you because she thought it meant he and Holster had broken up.”

“Yeah, so I’ve heard.” March nodded and laughed. “To be honest,” she admitted, “I was worried I’d lose Ransom to Holster for a bit. I barely saw him when I was getting my teaching certificate and they worked and lived together and I knew how close they were.”

“But it worked out,” Dami pointed out and March nodded.

“It took them explaining what aroace meant and a lot of discussions about boundaries and how relationships would work,” March said, picking at the pilling on the couch throw she was leaning against. “It was weird, at first, having Holster living with us, being aware of, if not a part of, so much of our relationship. But he and Ransom are inseparable and he became a really good friend and then Libby came along and, well…” March dropped the balls of fabric she’d picked off the blanket onto the floor and shrugged at Dami. “I couldn’t imagine doing it again without him. He’s not just a friend; he’s family. It’s why Justin and I wanted him to pick Libby’s name. He agonized for weeks. I can’t tell you how many baby name sites and books I saw him reading through.”

“He called Mom, asking her for Yoruba names,” Dami admitted.

March laughed. “Not surprising.”

“So how’d he pick Lieba?” Dami asked, “I always did wonder. Usually Libby makes you think Elizabeth.”

March shook her head. “It’s Yiddish. Means loved one. Because the first time he held her, he couldn’t believe how much he loved her.”

Dami blinked away her tears. “Well, shit.”

The boys came out again, shouldering up against each other until they collapsed on the couch, Ransom throwing an arm around March and pressing a kiss to her hair while Holster threw his feet over the arm of the couch and rested his head in Justin’s lap.

“Whatcha talkin’ about?” Ransom asked with a grin.

“Definitely not you two dorks,” Dami snorted.

“Oh shit, what did we do now?” Ransom asked as he looked down at Holster.

Holster shrugged, “Guess I can steal you away for the night and let these two continue to not talk about us?”

“Uh-uh, no way,” March cut in, leaning against Ransom’s chest, “You get him all day at work.”

“Yeah, but it’s work,” Holster argued, “I can’t cuddle my bestest bro at work.”

“Which is why there’s plenty of me to share,” Ransom said with a grin. Dami rolled her eyes at his cheesy eyebrow waggle.

“Come on, we’re not all home this early usually,” Holster said as he leaned forward to grab the remote off the table, “Let’s work on that Netflix list.”

They were ten minutes into their second episode of The Office for the night—

“I thought we were going to work on the Netflix list?”

“The Office is always on the Netflix list.”

—when the scream sounded and crying started. Small footsteps ran up the hallway.  “Mommy! Daddy! Papa!” Libby cried as she ran into the room and threw herself onto Ransom’s lap right as Holster moved out of the way of taking a knee to the nose.

“What happened, baby?” Ransom asked as he pulled her in for a hug. March gently shushed her tears as she pet her head.

“There’s a monster.”

“Oh, sweetheart,” March cooed.

“Well if there was, I’m sure you scared him away with all that yelling,” Ransom said, “They hide in dark, quiet spaces for a reason.”

“No! No, it’s still there!” Libby said, face still pressed into Ransom’s chest and she shook her head back and forth, “I wanna sleep with you.”

“You’re a big girl now, Libby,” March said, “You have the nightlight you can turn on by yourself to scare it away—”

“Nooo.”

“—and I’m sure Mr. Ears will help protect you while you sleep.”

Not finding the sympathy from either of those two, Libby pulled herself away from Ransom and threw herself at Holster. “Daddy, please let me sleep with you. The monsters’ll get me!”

Holster froze and sent pleading eyes up at Ransom and March, but March shook her head firmly. They were teaching Libby to sleep in her own bed and had to be a united front in this. Holster sighed and looked down at Libby, whose tears had long since stopped even though she still purposefully milked them by shaking her shoulders.

Holster pushed her away enough to look her in the face. “How about…” he offered, “I go with you to your room and make sure to scare them away?”

Libby bit at her bottom lip in frustration.

“I’m big, so I think I can do it. What do you think?”

Libby ducked her head in thought before adding, “You have to use the lightsaber.”

“Obviously!” Holster agreed as he picked her up and placed her back on her feet.

“Adam…” March warned.

“You go get the lightsaber out of my room,” Holster said as he pressed Libby back towards the hallway, “Monster-free, I promise.”

Libby nodded and ran off while Holster turned back to March and Ransom.

“She needs to learn to solve these things for herself,” March pointed out, “I’ll be starting school back up soon which means she’ll be in preschool all day since I’m with third-graders now, not kindergarten.”

While he understood the point of March’s argument, Holster could not just leave Libby to figure it out on her own. “You’re just scared of facing the monsters.”

Ransom huffed. “There are no—”

“While you were falling in love,” Holster’s voice boomed, as he pointed at the two of them, forcing their attention his way. He flexed his arms and added, “I studied the blade.”

“Daddy!” Libby called from the hallway as the lightsaber lit up bright green with a humming sound.

“Your hero is on his way!” Holster shouted.

Ransom laughed as Holster thundered down the hall and March turned to Dami with a soft smirk. “There’s a reason he calls her his one true love.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you, Kay, for beta-reading this for me!
> 
> If you'd like to chat with me more about Check Please, hit me up on Tumblr at rushingsnowy or Pillowfort at bookwyrmling!


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